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British Expeditionary Force Permutations in 1940

• Message 1.Β 

  Posted by Little Enos Rides Again (U1777880) on Monday, 24th April 2006

  I just caught something interesting on the UK history channel last night, it was on about the early years of the war and concentrating on Germany's occupation of Norway etc.
  
  However what I found really interesting was a potential "What If". The British Expeditionary Force was originally set up to help Finland against the Soviet attack, however Finland surrendered to the Russians and obviously the British force ended up being sent to Norway instead. They captured the Port City of Narvik before being forced to withdraw at about the same time as the Dunkirk withdrawal.
  
  However my "What If" would be what would of happend if say the Fins had held out for a few extra weeks and the BEF was sent to Finland as opposed to Norway and the British actually engaged Soviet forces in 1940?
  
  How would this have ultimately affected the alliance of the big 3 (UK, US & Soviet Union) during WWII where the relationship was strained at the best of times. i.e. it would be highly unlikely the Soviets would contemplate being allies with the UK if the two countries had engaged in Finland in 1940.
  
  I mean if the UK had gone to war with the Soviet Union in Finland, surely this would be a massive plus for Hitler in terms of the Barbarossa Invasion in 1941 (which no doubt would still of gone ahead?
  
  e.g. the British would be badly over stretched on the Western front and couldn't possibly fight both Germany and the Soviet Union and would the US have teamed up with the UK to fight both the Germans and Soviets or just concentrated on the Japanese in the Pacific (assuming Pearl Harbor still happened in 1941 as there is no reason why it wouldn't)?
  
  Certainly in my opinion had we attacked the Russian's in Finland in 1940 the implications would have meant the European theatre for Germany would be very favourable.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by henrylee100 (U536041) on Monday, 24th April 2006

  I think even if the Finns had held out long enough for the BEF to arrive there in time, eventually the BEF would have ended up being sent to Norway anyway as soon as the Germans struck there and in France. See it wasn't just a question of the Finns holding out, it was also depndent on what the Germans were up to. I guess after the invasion of France, Norway would still have been deemed as a far more important theater for Britain than Finland. Finland would then have surrendered to the USSR and after Barbarossa went ahead the USSR and Britain would have made it up with each other even if their troops would have previously actually enganged each other in Finland in 1940. After all it's all politics and even Finland ended up allying with the USSR in 1944 and turning against the Germans in what later became known as the Lapland war.

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• Message 3

  , in reply to message 2.

  Posted by Little Enos Rides Again (U1777880) on Monday, 24th April 2006

  It facsinated me that we Brits actually were not a million miles away from attacking the Soviets in 1940.
  
  However I guess a safe scenario would be that once Germany had invaded Russia in 1941, at which time the Nazi's were all conquering and obviously in possession of France, Holland, Belgium, Norway et al, I guess the Russians prior to 1942/3 would be desperate for help from anybody.
  
  And any engagement with the British in Finland no doubt would of been relatively small scale in the grand scheme of the Soviets facing the German Blitzkrieg in 1941.
  
  After all there were obviously several u-turns between who countries were fighting with / against in WWII such as Italy going axis to allies, Finland as mentioned, Germany / Russia and Russia / Japan etc
  
  But a UK v Soviet Union engagement certainly could of thrown a few spanners in the works, particularly post 1945?
  
  
  

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